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Seychelles and Mauritius highlight Blue Economy prospects in the Indian Ocean Rim region

05.07.2013

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jean-Paul Adam, has led a delegation participating in the 1st Indian Ocean Rim Association for Regional Cooperation (IORARC) Economic And Business Conference in Mauritius, from 4th to 5th July, which was jointly convened by the governments of Mauritius and India as the current Chair of IORARC.

During the meeting, Seychelles and Mauritius co-chaired a high-level panel entitled ‘Harnessing the potential of the Ocean Economy/ Blue Economy’. Minister Adam, and his Mauritian counterpart, Foreign Minister Arvin Boolell, both highlighted the historic example set by the two countries in agreeing the shared management of their extended continental shelf.

At the inaugural ceremony of the conference, H.E Mr. Navinchandra Ramgoolam, Prime Minister of Mauritius, also singled out the agreement between Seychelles and Mauritius as a landmark for international oceanic management and development of the 'blue economy' or 'ocean economy'.

Minister Adam stated: "Both counties are extremely proud of this agreement. We are also extremely encouraged by all the perspectives for development that this offers our two countries and peoples".

In his intervention on the panel, Minister Adam Minister Adam called on IORARC to provide the space for the development of the Indian Ocean from a space based on "extraction and exploitation" to a "development space" based on sustainability.

As part of this process, he said there was great potential for development of fisheries resources, food security and energy security based particularly on developing and sharing renewable energy technology.

In addition he illustrated that in Tourism, the Vanilla Islands concept was already providing an example of how neighboring islands can share their comparative advantages to provide a regional ocean based tourism product.

The Seychelles delegation also included a high-level business delegation led by the Chair of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Mr. Marco Francis.